LG Electronics on Monday said it has inked a deal with Japanese game developer CAPCOM to release the popular video game “Street Fighter IV,” on its HD Android smartphones that is expected to be launched before the year is out.

It will mark the first time for the game series to debut on an Android-powered smartphone, the Seoul-based company said.

IPhone users currently are able to play the “Street Fighter” series, but LG officials said they hope to offer a better quality of game content via its 4.5-inch display with HD picture quality.

“We are honored to be able to bring one of the most popular fighting games of all time into the Android ecosystem,” said Park Jong-seok, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “As we prepare our first HD smartphone for launch, it was important for us to be able to offer HD content that would really demonstrate this phone’s benefits. The HD version of “Street Fighter” certainly fills this objective. We are also confident that LG’s soon-to-be-unveiled HD display technology will give “Street Fighter” fans a whole new reason to play the game again.”

The “Street Fighter” series debuted in 1987 and is found on millions of game consoles and in arcades all over the world, according to LG Electronics. Nearly 30 million games have been sold to date.

“We very much look forward to expanding the legacy of ‘Street Fighter’ to the Android platform through this partnership with LG,” said Yoshinori Ishida, Deputy Head of Consumer Games Business Division and General Manager of Consumer Games Marketing Department at CAPCOM. “We wanted to ensure the ‘Street Fighter’ concept transitioned seamlessly to Android.”

By Kim Ji-hyun  (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)